What follows is one perspective, a conversation starter on the theme of American threefolding. I am particularly interested here in exploring this from a ‘conservative’ perspective, as I see this is often underrepresented in our circles, and we seem to too easily forget that Steiner’s social thought can only be approached in a manner true to spiritual scientific methodology if we first of all accept the immediately given, the unadulterated perceptual whole of the phenomenon that is a social organism, and not merely those aspects of it that we may deem the best, or the most primed for positive change. I approached it in this way also because the ‘salt of the earth’, the ‘tonic note’ of any people carries that which is most characteristic. (Progressive, urban areas are more cosmopolitan.) I hope it sparks some interest and calls forth some creative tension.

~ David Ecklund

Freeing American Genius

David Ecklund

Where do we find evidence of a spontaneously emerging threefold social organism welling up around us? What special advantages and disadvantages do we as Americans have towards creating the conditions necessary for this? Where should we, as an anthroposophical movement, focus our energies to best facilitate such conditions? 

Let us start with the virtue or ideal which has played the most prominent and celebrated role in American history, that of liberty, or freedom. Consider the word: free-dom, like kingdom or officialdom the English language culture sees this fundamental human longing to be somehow bound up with a domain of some kind. We seek to be left alone, and to do as we please without interference within the bounds of our own justly acquired private property. As much as there is a considerable part of the population who does not subscribe to such views we can see that it is exactly that group which is, generally speaking, the least patriotic; the least embracing of traditional American symbolism and cultural pride. (But they have thrown the baby out with the bathwater, and that inner babe must be taken up in arms again.) America, as a cohesive, felt culture, is a determinedly freedom-seeking one. This little word has been the battle cry in many a fray, and it would behoove those who purport to be students of Rudolf Steiner’s to take heed when he warns us about translating the German word Freiheit — freehood — as the English freedomDie Philosophie der Freiheit is to be translated, according to its author (who, we must concede, has the only relevant opinion on the matter) as The Philosophy of Spirituelle Aktivität (Spiritual Activity). Perhaps seen from this perspective we can begin to grasp what is at the root of America’s struggle to live her deeply held dream. We, in seeking to become spiritually active, to become beings of creative originality, have taken a wrong turn into the economic sphere, making a kingdom of this world.

Or have we simply found ourselves there in the first place and need to course correct? In any case, the dynamic entrepreneur or turn-around expert in the business world is justly the most celebrated figure in the patriotic part of America. He is, in essence, the cultural leadership in disguise as an economic one. He is inventive, flexible, empathic, decisive, takes responsibility as a creative act, listens generatively and commands authentic loyalty. As much as the less patriotic have denied the genius of such persons, they are, perhaps more than anywhere else, where the indomitable American Spirit is most visible in public life. Such are undoubtedly the inheritors of the American imagination, and they do more than champion the faded glory of the rags-to-riches archetype, they carry the heart of the nation through the treacherous pass of our historical moment. What is needed now is to leave the crown of iron and take up a crown of gold. 

The spiritual genius of the American individualist cannot be stomped out of our midst through regulation or well-meant attempts to be kinder in the world. Those, for America, can only be secondary and symptomatic developments once a key shift has been made. The Dionysian rites of American capitalism must be reborn in the Apollonian (sun) mysteries of American culture.

On the ground, in terms of structure, this would mean divorcing intellectual property of all kinds, as well as research and development — from products, all the way to processes for organizational learning and resilience — from the economic process (as well as from the state e.g. military and intelligence research) and placing them firmly into the cultural realm, where they would be available to all, without regard to one’s place within the economy. I posit that in order to shift from our current, suicidal imperialism, this is the primary, most essential change necessary, for it is in this way the American dreamer can be embraced and encouraged, instead of scolded and entangled. This is already underway with open source software and hardware, consumer co-design, etc. The perplexing magnanimity Americans are known for can be unleashed on a global scale with a reach and fullness which our militaristic thrall could never accomplish. In the book Drive by Daniel Pink, we see demonstrated the necessity of intrinsic motivation for increased productivity, that is, that we must have the innerfreedom to create without expectation or even awareness of external reward in order to attain our potential as individuals. If we were to institute the changes suggested by such generally agreed upon perspectives, those concerned about greed and corruption would suddenly find themselves in cooperation with their former foes who would now be leading us all, in the cultural sphere, towards a restorative society. The solar hero we have been fearing to claim to be can also shine in the once and future “land of the free, and the home of the brave” when our intense will nature is selflessly, yet intensely individually, active in the higher, spiritual sphere of its origins.